Intravenous (IV) stands are in common use in hospitals, nursing homes and facilities in which patients must receive fluids while in a bed or in transport. These stands frequently are a base with wheels and a stand projecting vertically to a height above the patient, for attachment of the liquid containers to permit gravity flow of the fluid into a blood vessel of the patient. This configuration is not very stable since the stand can be rolled away form the patient unintentionally while the connecting tubes are still attached to the patient. Also the stand with the fluid container elevated above the patient is top heavy and can topple.
A further problem is the difficulty in transporting the patient and having to move the IV stand synchronously with the patient transport (e.g. bed or gurney). This is especially important in critical care units where the patient requiring intravenous infusion has been placed in a bed and must be moved while still in the same bed. Satisfactory support is also needed in a hospital room where the patient is not being transported but still requires a stable IV support arrangement permitting unimpeded access to the patient.
To overcome these problems, certain means for attaching the upright stand to the patient support have been designed. These include a rigid connector between the IV stand and the bed so that both can be rolled together. Teachings of this type include the Dennis U.S. Pat. No. 4,886,237; the Sheehan U.S. Pat. No. 5,149,036; and the Ruehl U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,816. However, these designs frequently interfere with access to the patient by the medical staff and are fixed in place, thereby limiting their utility. Also, the conventional IV stand manifestly requires a tangible amount of space alongside the patient's bed, which space would otherwise be available for other purposes.
A need clearly exists for a simple IV support device which can be readily attached to the bed or gurney upon which the patient is lying, and then easily moved to any desired position with respect to the patient. The device should also be readily affordable and capable of being stored without interfering with access to the patient.
Considering now in more detail some of the generally relevant prior art patents, it is to be seen from the Desjardins U.S. Pat. No. 4,738,369 entitled "CEILING SUPPORT FOR PATIENT MONITORING EQUIPMENT" that some efforts to avoid the use of the clumsy rollaround IV stands has involved a support arrangement for a solution bottle 22 that is suspended from the ceiling over the patient's bed. However, while making more bedside space available, such an arrangement is necessarily expensive, and would be difficult to retrofit into rooms of many hospitals of older construction.
The Dennis U.S. Pat. No. 4,886,237 entitled "UNIVERSAL ARTICULATABLE SUPPORT FOR RETAINING INTRAVENOUS STANDS IN MEDICAL APPLICATIONS" illustrates an arrangement whereby the intravenous stand 17 is stabilized by the use of a pivoted bar mounted to the frame 12 of a patient support, which obviously is a bed. This approach, however, still does not obviate the use of the archaic IV stand, which takes up space alongside the bed that could be utilized for other purposes.
The Sheehan U.S. Pat. No. 5,149,036 entitled "DEVICE FOR ATTACHING AN IV POLE TO A HOSPITAL BED OR THE LIKE" reveals another arrangement for providing stability to an IV pole 10 upon which an administration bag 17 is supported, but this is another example of the continuing use of a device requiring a tangible amount of space in the immediate vicinity of a patient's bed.
The Ruehl U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,816 entitled "IV RACK TRANSFERRABLE FROM AN IV STAND TO A HOSPITAL BED" reveals an IV rack that quite interestingly, is movable from the IV stand mounting block 24 to the IV rail mounting block 12. After the rack has been transferred to the IV rail, a handle 71 of lever 64 is raised upwardly thereby enabling the IV stand to be cleared so that it can be rolled away from the bed. This, however, is not only a manifestly expensive arrangement, but also it would not permit an IV bottle to move with the patient from one bed to another.
The Hansen et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,499,721 entitled "SUPPLY STAND CLAMP" teaches the use of multiple IV pole supporting arrangements mounted at one end of a wheeled bed, but these various mechanisms are also necessarily expensive and clearly would not permit an IV bottle to move with the patient from one bed to another.
Lastly, Foster et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,647,491 entitled "IV RACK" illustrates another arrangement in which the IV rack derives support from the ceiling. This arrangement is obviously very complicated and would necessarily involve an expense that could not be justified by a vast majority of hospitals.
It is quite obvious that none of these devices is of simple, uncomplicated construction, that can easily be attached, without the use of tools, to any selected location on a bed, stretcher or gurney; that can easily follow the patient from bed to bed; and which can provide a highly satisfactory support arrangement for any of a number of different types of drugs or fluids to be administered.